MORE OF THE SAME’ STANDS IN THE PATH OF PROGRESS
Poverty used to be seen as an inescapable part of an imperfect world.
Today it’s viewed more as a technical problem that merely needs the right intervention.
Of course, many things can get between the impoverished and their route out of it, but policies based on the latest findings in agronomy, economics, medicine and sociology hold the power to turn poverty around.
Many parts of the world have, through a mix of these solutions, stepped out of the worst poverty while others have yet to turn their fortunes around.
There are two kinds of poverty. Social poverty, which denies opportunities open to others; and biological poverty, which puts lives at risk because of the lack of basic human needs such as enough food and adequate shelter.
Social poverty is not as quick to remedy, it’s down to enlightened leadership, social cohesion and a commitment to invest in change. It takes time for education to achieve a ‘trickle down’ effect which produces more people who are active economy contributors and builders.
We do, however, have the means to tackle biological poverty and, in many places around the world, it has become a rarer thing.
Natural disasters can overturn a whole community or region’s wellbeing and fortunes in an instant. Flooding, drought, landslides, tsunami events, hurricanes and earthquakes are all acute natural phenomenon — some are one-off and short-lived, and others leave inhabitants dealing with the fall-out for weeks, months or even years.
Worldwide relief efforts are there to step in to bring people’s lives back above the biological poverty line but there are challenges here too. Aid workers can be targets for violence or worse and corrupt governments can intercept and withhold aid from their own people.
But our world is changing too, and we cannot be complacent. Climate change affects everyone. The Earth has always been in a state of constant change. At least five major ice ages have occurred throughout Earth’s history: the earliest was over two billion years ago, and the most recent one began approximately three million years ago and continues today. Yes, we live in an ice age.
There have been several times in Earth’s past when Earth’s temperature jumped abruptly also. The weather is the biggest contributors to disaster events, and it is shifting its patterns.
So we know how to help people out of poverty, we also know that we have to lighten our footprint on this planet. Stability and predictability are poverty’s enemy. We simply have to try harder to find and educate the next generation of engineers and scientists — wherever they come from — and look harder for the potential in people. With the right conditions, and with the human ability to adapt and learn — the solution to poverty and a stable future is in our own hands.
Social Media Post: Source ‘Sapiens — A Brief History of HumanKind’
Novel by Yuval Noah Harari
